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sparrowrye · 4 months

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Alastor x Fem! Reader {soulmates} Part 11

Synopsis: soulmate AU where you have the same mark on your body as your soulmate, and if your soulmate dies, you die too. Alastor needs to make sure that his soulmate is safe so he can continue his reign - whatever that takes. Though it looks like we have a couple secrets of our own.

Previous Part

Part 11: shadow work

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Husker and I made it a routine to practice mind magic every morning and evening. He first taught me how to raise and lower my mental shield, allowing him to practice coming into my mind and then putting my shield up when we were done practicing.

He would push into my head and I would meet him halfway. He would push until I matched his strength, allowing me to gradually push him out. We did this repeatedly until one evening he was actually struggling to push further into my mind.

Both of us were gripping onto the arms of the chairs we sat in. Our bodies contorted forward as our minds fought with one another. I pushed him past my shoulders and was now fighting him in my head. He was stronger but I noticed that he didn't have a lot of mind stamina. I kept pushing hard but didn't give everything yet. He was getting tired and it was a matter of waiting him out.

"What are you doing?" Nifty scared Husker from over his shoulder. He recoiled his presence and we both stared at her. "You guys looked really funny for awhile."

"Practicing some magic," I answered her.

"You really looked like—there you are!" She dove over Husker's shoulder to pounce on a spider on the floor. I pulled my feet up as she chased it around for fun.

"Just kill it!" I yelled. She eventually squished it under her palm and wiped up its guts. Husker laughed at my discomfort. I flicked a small ember from my hand and landed it on his cheek fur.

He furiously scratched it off. "I'm flammable you know!"

"So take a shower here and there," I shot back, "Maybe your fur won’t be so dry and brittle. And you wouldn't make my nose curl so much."

He pulled his legs up to be on all fours on the chair. I took the incentive and did the same on my chair. We stared each other down until Husker made the first move. I pounced off the chair and made a run for the kitchen door.

I skidded to a halt and Husker slid straight into my back. Alastor stood at the door with his hands behind his back, smiling down at us. Husker quickly stood and lifted me up by arms.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Time for your lesson." He walked past me into the spacious library.

"What lesson? I thought I was supposed to be practicing mind magic."

"You still have more magic to learn." He put his cane down and turned on his heels, waiting. I let out a quiet groan and walked into the library. Everything shut like normal and he ordered me to conjure light once again. "This time, use the shadows." He took the sphere from me and placed it on the desk.

I looked down at the shadows across the floor from the furniture. I pictured them all melting together and slithering along the floor like Alastor did. I was shocked to find them obeying with ease. They covered the sphere within seconds. I looked up at him, both of us wide eyed.

I looked down at Alastor's shadow. It seemed to crawl out from under his feet and stretched over to mine. I took a few steps back and watched it observing my own shadow.

My shadow clawed it in the face and I gasped. It's face contorted into a snout and opened in a roar, scaring Alastor's shadow back to his owner. My shadow went back to its original shape.

I slowly looked up at Alastor. "That...I didn't do that on purpose."

"I'm aware." His eyes narrowed but his smile didn't lessen. "Darken the room."

"What?"

"Make it pitch black in here."

"I don't know how."

"Then you best figure it out."

My heart quickened. He was upset. I looked at all the shadows and darkened them, watching the carpet and wood turn pitch black. I tried making them bigger but they wouldn't listen this time.

"Come now, you could do all that but you can't do this?" He stalked over and stood behind my back. I tried to watch him but he grabbed my shoulder and kept me facing away. My hands were getting sweaty and my wings itched to come out.

I looked at our shadows on the floor. His towered over mine with narrowed eyes. Mine suddenly broke free of its constraint and turned into a dragon's head looking up at Alastor's.

It opened its wide mouth, then it's wings. The wings stretched across the floor, encasing everything in a shadow. I watched in horror as the darkness climbed up the walls. Bit by bit the shadows covered every inch of the room until the only light emitting was a faint glow from my body.

"I see you're in tune with shadow magic," Alastor's radio voice echoed into the dark nothingness. The light around me suddenly went out as I was swallowed by darkness. His claws moved from my shoulder to my throat. He pulled me back against his chest and his breath brushed against my ear. "But I will always be the master of the shadows."

I swallowed against his tight grip.

He let go and the light returned to the room. I immediately drew the sunlight in as the curtains were drawn back. The shadows disappears as the sunlight took over.

****

I told Husker about the shadows. He seemed really interested and asked if I could make my shadow move again. When I tried, however, it stayed still. It followed my every move. It wasn't sentient anymore.

Husker said it probably only had a mind of its own when I felt in danger. When I was in the library I sure felt that way.

So I started playing with the shadows more. I asked Husker for our usual morning fly that we would cut short in the forest. He would wait against a bare tree while I moved their shadows around across the snow. I made all kinds of shapes and even covered myself in a ball of darkness, blocking the sun out entirely. I didn't stay in it long.

My shadow never turned into anything more than my shadow.

"You're doing a lot better," Husker said as we walked back to the house. The snow crunched under our clawed feet.

"It doesn't feel that way."

"Yeah, probably. But remember you used to struggle with restoring an old lamp. Now you're moving shadows around as if it's nothing."

"I don't know. I just feel...I don't feel like I know a whole lot."

"Well what do you expect? You're trying to catch up to two Demons who've had their magic their whole life. It's going to take you awhile. But you should be looking back here and there to notice how far you've come already."

I looked up to realize we were already at the house. I hadn't noticed that we had crossed the field. He smiled with his one tooth sticking out again and went inside.

Later that night, I had another nightmare about Striker. I had fewer nightmares but they still came rather frequently. Some were true memories and others were distortions of them, my mind playing tricks on me.

I had gotten seriously hurt in the last fight. Striker was furious with me and left me to suffer in my own injury. I had a fever all night long and I was completely out of my head. He came the next morning to take me to the healer, but those long hours alone had been torment.

I couldn't go back to sleep and instead started to read again. But I couldn't really focus on it. Either because my mind was all over or I just wasn't interested in it.

Then a thought passed my mind. I looked down at the book then up at the door. I pulled the covers off and quietly snuck into the hallway. My long pants didn't keep me warm and I had to use magic to cast the cold away. I was light on my toes as I passed Alastor’s and Husker’s room and went into the library.

I turned on the little lamp on the desk. I planted my hands on my hips and looked at the book covered wall. Alastor had pulled one of these books to show me the magic levels. Surely that meant there were other books in here about magic that I could read about.

Surely enough, there was. It never really explained how to use it but it went greatly in depth about everything else. So I picked a book on shadows and sat in a chair next to the lamp.

Shadows were Demon's magic. Originally everything had been divided by Demon's magic and Angel's magic.

It explained that shadows were a reflection of our soul. Many times their shadow showed their true feelings through a single movement. Others were a bit more lively.

I searched through a couple more books until I found one that was more current. It said there were very few who could have a sentient shadow and even fewer who could turn their shadow into solid beings. Though it never explained how someone could do that.

I looked at my own shadow and froze. A few paces from mine was Alastor's. I looked up to see him standing in the doorway, arms behind his back. I immediately got to my feet but he disappeared into the floor. He reappeared behind me.

"Couldn't sleep?" he asked cheerfully.

"N-no." I put the back on the desk as I faced him. His eyes went to the book then back to me.

"Interested in shadow work, I see."

"No, no. I was just...I wanted to know more about...why my shadow moved. That's all."

He chuckled and settled himself on the chair I had been sitting in. "My my, you could've asked me."

Yeah right.

"Considering that we're soulmates, I wasn't surprised to discover that you had a talent for shadow work." He leaned his hands on his cane. "It's something I twiddle with every day. And you clearly have an interest in it, as well."

"I'm not trying to master it or anything. I just wanted to know why it moved," I said quickly.

"My dear, it moved because we are both in tune with that kind of magic. Now that you've dabbled in it, your shadow now reflects your soul when your emotions are high."

I looked over at both our shadows. Alastor's had a single eye that was watching me while mine looked normal.

"Well, thank you for telling me. It makes more sense now," I said as I backed towards the door. My feet fell out from under me and I landed hard on my elbows. I looked to see Alastor's shadow grabbing my shadows’s feet.

My shadow turned into a dragon head again and snapped its long jaws at him. His shadow recoiled but opened its own toothy snarl.

"You'll need to learn to control your shadow," Alastor stood and walked past me still on the floor. "Get a good night's rest, darling. I'll teach you tomorrow how to properly control it."

I was growing tired of his antics. He was purposefully scaring me, now. He knew something about my shadow that I didn't. He knows everything there is to know about shadow magic but he's purposefully keeping that information from me. My thoughts were confirmed when I found the books on shadow magic to be gone from the library a few days later.

Alastor held true to his word about teaching me, though. That afternoon he kept the curtains open so the faint sun casted shadows everywhere. His shadow didn't stay still, clambering around on the floor. It kept poking my shadow's head as it passed.

"Your shadow reflects your soul and your emotional state," Alastor lectured. He faced me with his hands and cane behind his back. His teeth were showing this time. "This isn't a matter of controlling your emotions. It's what's going on deep inside your head."

"There's a lot going on in my head," I replied.

"Which is why..." He shoved me back into a chair and circled behind it, grabbing hold of both my shoulders. "That's exactly where we're going."

I gasped as his presence bolted through my entire body. Everything tensed and I dug my claws deep into the wood. I wanted to scream. I was thrown back and stared up at a red ceiling. A moment later, Alastor looked down at me.

"Recognize it?"

I looked around at my own mindscape. I could see the faint outline of my shield. "What are we doing?" I demanded.

"Call your shadow."

I looked down at my feet as my shadow manifested on its own. It came out as a dragon, completely separate from me. Alastor's shadow shot out from behind him and chased after mine. It ran along my shield in a circle with screeches and howls. It ran back to me and wrapped itself around my body like a snake. Alastor's shadow came to a stop, its arms the only visible limbs aside from its head.

I stared at my hands that were now partially covered by my shadow. It screeched at Alastor's shadow over my shoulder, seemingly 3D now. It snapped open its wings, making both of us look twice our size.

I jumped when Alastor touched my shoulder. My shadow turned its head towards him, growling and slowly moving across my chest at him. Without warning, it lunged at him. He let out a cackle as he spun the shadow around him and casted it back into the floor.

"You and your shadow cannot harm me here," he said, "Our souls are bound, our minds linked. I am a part of you as you are of me. Your mind will not let you hurt yourself."

I looked over at his shadow still on the ground staring at me. It jumped at me. I tripped backwards and casted it overhead. It squeezed back into the ground and crawled over to Alastor. Its face was an angry snarl, contrasting to Alastor's wide smile. Though by the look of his eyes, I could guess his shadow was reflecting how he was truly feeling. I had just moved Alastor's shadow. My hand had felt cold when I did.

My shadow slithered back to my feet and reattached itself, turning back into my normal looking shadow. A human shadow.

"You cannot rid me from your mind," Alastor declared, settling his hands on his cane again. "Trying to sever the soul-bound link we have will slowly break your mind until there is nothing left. I would suggest you come to terms with it."

His hands lifted off my shoulders and his presence went with them. I sucked in the cold air and threw myself out of the chair. My Demon side came out as I turned to face him. My shadow mimicked me but it was staring at Alastor's shadow in the empty fireplace.

"Control it," he snapped at me. My shadow abruptly turned its head towards him. It backed away and grew in size on the wall behind me, spreading its wings wide around the room.

"I am."

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Author’s note:

This one felt soooooo good to write. I hope you guys liked it too! This is the beginning of a request and I’m excited to show the shadow’s development. Let me know what you guys think!

#alastor the radio demon #alastor x reader #hazbin alastor #hazbin hotel #hazbin husk #soulmate au #soulmates #hazbin hotel husk #reqs open #sparrow answers

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